| It had to happen, and it has. After fifty years, the Quaid has finally capitulated. He has become like any other Pakistani, fashionably late. He is now unconscionably late for his own Golden Jubilee. For those who knew the Quaid when he was simply the punctilious Mr Jinnah, such a lapse on his part would have been unthinkable. To those who know of him posthumously as the figurehead leader of a dilatory nation, he could not be expected to be otherwise. |
| An image of the Quaid as a stern national icon has been fabricated since his death until now the effigy has effectively superseded the reality of the frail man. Jinnah must have foreseen his fate at the hands of his future acolytes, which perhaps explains why he was so assiduous in preserving his own privacy. [EXTRACT] |
Published in DAWN 24 May 1998, and reprinted in THE BARK OF A PEN (2001). |
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